


Laps

by storytime



Series: College [1]
Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: Best Friends, College AU, Emily's first break up, Toby comforts her and takes her to the pool to get her mind of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 17:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2437409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storytime/pseuds/storytime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emily goes through her first college break up and Toby helps her take her mind off it by taking her to their college pool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laps

“Em?”

 

Toby pushes her bedroom door open and sighs when he sees her curled up under her duvet with a carton of ice cream in her hands. She lifts up the blankets in invitation and he settles next to her, sitting up against the wall. Emily leans into his side and hits the space bar on her laptop. Sweet Home Alabama resumes playing and they sit in silence.

He only makes it through twenty minutes of the movie before he’s closing the lid of the laptop and taking the ice cream out of her hands. She protests as he puts the ice cream back into the freezer of her mini fridge. It doesn’t take him long to rummage through her tiny closet and toss her favourite one piece training swimmers on the bed along with shorts, a lose shirt and goggles.

 

“What are you doing?” Emily asks.

“I know this break up hasn’t been easy, Sarah was your first college girlfriend and all, but I’m not going to let you sit and mope. I love you and that’s why you’re going to do laps in the gym and I’m going to time you.”

“It’s two in the morning.”

“Like I said before, I love you.”

 

Emily sighs and gets out of bed. He watches her stuff everything she needs into a waterproof bag and grab a towel from the hanger behind the door. She locks up and they walk the short distance to the campus gym in silence. Dion, the guy working the front desk a the gym, doesn’t even bat an eyelid when they walk in and just throws Toby the keys to the pool.

Toby pulls a stopwatch out of the pocket of his jeans and sits on a diving block while he waits for Emily to get changed. It doesn’t take her long but that doesn’t surprise him, she’s been swimming for years. He barely flinches when she dives in off the block next to him and he is lightly splashed with water.

He watches as she carves through the water. All her emotional pain is being redirected into aggression, he can tell because she’s pushing her speed in a way she usually doesn’t and they way her form isn’t as put together as it usually is. She’s making good time on the first few laps but then Toby watches her slip into her usual rhythm. All her aggression is gone and Emily is completely focused on the task at hand. That’s exactly what Toby wants. She has a meet in a few days and can’t afford to be a blubbering mess over an ex girlfriend.

Toby eventually stops counting laps and it’s not until three thirty in the morning that Emily hauls herself out of the pool. She’s loose limbed and looks exhausted as she sits next to him on the edge of the pool. He’s taller than her, sitting up on the block but she rests her head on his leg.

 

“Thank you.”

“Any time.”


End file.
